Jason Wadanabe is stitching a collection of men’s and women’s blazers — eight of them.

"I’m turning 21 this year on Aug. 22nd, so I want to do something special," says the budding couturier fashion designer.

Putting together his first official collection allows him to hone his sewing skills, giving him an edge, he says, over other students returning for a third year of studies at the prestigious Parsons The New School for Design, in New York City.

"At Parsons they don’t give you actual techniques for sewing," he explains. "They want to root you in fine arts."

Meanwhile, married mom Stella Chamberlain, 31, is learning the sewing basics to help her design the clothes she has seamstresses in Nha Trang, Vietnam, make for her, and which she sells partly to help raise money for orphanages and other charities there.

When you’re passionately pursuing a dream, you don’t stop just because it’s summer vacation.

As often as they can, Wadanabe and Chamberlain drop in to the Little Button Sewing Studio on Fort Road to learn what some call "the lost art of sewing" from seamstress/sewing instructor Angela Kelly.

Kelly, 22, who learned how to sew from her grandmother when she was eight years old, has a diploma in Fashion Design and Merchandising from The Art Institute of Vancouver.

Usually, mothers sewing clothes for their kids or teens, or making themselves a fitted skirt or dress, are seated at the studio’s five machines, Kelly says. Although kids as young as five have attended sewing summer camps.

Both Wadanabe and Chamberlain like that the classes they take are on a drop-in basis, which gives them more flexibility, and that they can tackle whatever project they choose.

Chamberlain is working on a shirt for herself, but mainly designs bathing suits — bikinis and one-pieces — and sundresses.

"There are a lot designs I would like to do, but I don’t know if they can be done," she says, because she’s limited by only being able to draw the end product.

That was fine when she was designing for fun, Chamberlain says, "but now it’s getting a little more serious.

"It will be neat to be able to sit on my own and sew. Right now I’m still a little nervous with the machine." She hasn’t had to do any seam ripping yet, but from overhearing Wadanabe’s frustration sometimes as he works on his blazers, Chamberlain knows that won’t always be the case.

"Sometimes, I want to beat up my sewing mfashioachine," Wadanabe admits, especially when sewing sleeves on a curve.

"Sewing is a challenge, something you have to practise like the piano" he says. "Most people underestimate it, but (the last couple of months) has opened my eyes that sewing is something that is very valuable, that gives you a sense of structure and discipline almost."

Like his good friend, rising star fashion designer Sid Neigum, a Drayton Valley native pursuing a degree in fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Wadanabe dreams of one day showing a collection on Paris runways, probably under his middle name, Masayuki.

"My goal is to have something going for myself by the time I’m 23, and by the time I’m 25, I’m hoping I’ll be established."

His icon is the late British fashion designer and couturier Alexander McQueen. Wadanabe interned at the House of McQueen last year. Like McQueen, he loves structured work, fitted work and geometric patterns.

He’s chosen blazers for his first collection because "I love blazers a lot, I wear blazers a lot. I think it just gives you a form of elegance, and you can pair it with anything from casual to sophisticated, like evening wear," he explains.

Unlike the typical blazer, Wadanabe’s creations are embellished with studs, or with handmade chiffon organza flowers. "I like to make an impression, I don’t like to do the norm.

"I know ready-to-wear is where the market is right now because it’s more sellable and that’s where the money is," he says.

"But for me, infusing art and fash ion and creating a masterpiece is more important to me than selling something. It’s important to have affordable, high fashion clothing too," he adds. "I would be devastated if high fashon died away."

The former Archbishop MacDonald High School grad says his parents aren’t crazy about his choice of career.

"I’m good with my hands, I might have been a good surgeon," he says, but unlike his cousins who are all doctors or lawyers, he doesn’t have a passion for medicine or law.

"I’m obsessed with fashion," Wadanabe says, so where else would you find him this summer but in a sewing studio, doing what he loves best?

czdeb@edmontonjournal.com

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